In-line egg oiler

ABSTRACT

An oiler for depositing oil, in the form of a fine mist or fog, on articles traveling on a conveyor belt, and more particularly eggs in an in-line egg processing apparatus. The oiler is in the form of an enclosure disposed above the conveyor. A nozzle disposed within the enclosure sprays a fine fan-shaped spray of oil impinging upon the bottom floor of the enclosure. An air blower supplies a flow of turbulent air to the interior of the enclosure for slightly pressurizing the interior of the enclosure and creating a fine oil mist or fog which is exhausted from the enclosure through slots at the bottom of the enclosure for coating the shells of the eggs traveling below the enclosure on a conveyor belt.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to an apparatus for oiling eggs, subsequent tocleaning the eggs and prior to packaging.

It is common practice to clean eggs on an automatic egg cleaningapparatus prior to packaging the eggs by means of an automatic packager.While being transported on a conveyor belt, the eggs are passed througha washing station where they are washed with detergent and hot water,and scrubbed by rotary brushes. The eggs are subsequently passed througha drying station in which the shells are dried by a flow of air.

The washing step removes from the surface of the eggshells the naturaloil normally coating newly laid eggs. It is necessary to reseal theeggshell pores to prevent loss of carbon dioxide and mositure, prior topackaging the eggs. This is accomplished conventionally by oiling thesurface of the eggshells, either by spraying the eggs with mineral oilas they pass below a spray head while being transported on the conveyorbelt, by applying a relatively large quantity of oil to the top of theeggs with reliance on gravity for dripping the excess oil over the wholesurface of each shell, by wiping the surface of the eggshells with softbrushes supplied with oil, by simply dipping the eggs in an oil bath, orby oiling them by hand.

All the methods and apparatus hereto available for oiling eggs on theconveyor belt of an in-line egg processing apparatus present theinconveniences that far from the optimum quantity of oil is applied tothe eggshells, and generally result in an excess of oil being applied,which in turn causes an inconvenience to the comsumer and, in addition,causes considerable waste of oil and requires frequent cleaning of theconveyor belt system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention remedies the inconveniences of the prior art byproviding an automatic egg oiler that applies to the surface ofeggshells a fine coating of oil in an optimum amount, the oil beingapplied to the shell surface in the form of a fine atomized cloud or fogenabling the coating of the eggs to be effected evenly, and withoutexcess oil, therefore in an economic, precise and efficient manner.

The diverse objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art when the following description ofthe best mode contemplated at the present for practicing the inventionis read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing wherein likenumerals refer to like parts and in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation, in side elevation, of an egg oileraccording to the present invention, with portions broken away forillustrating the internal construction;

FIG. 2 is a transverse section thereof along the line 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view from line 3--3 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a simplied electrical diagram of the apparatus of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference to the drawing, and more particularly to FIG. 1, there isillustrated, in a schematic manner and for illustrative purpose only, anegg oiler 10 according to the present invention, in the form of aparallelpipedonal housing 12 mounted above the conveyor belt 14 of aninline egg processing apparatus. The eggs 16 on the conveyor belt 14continuously travel below the housing 12, for example in the directionof the arrow, FIG. 2. The housing 12 is preferably made of stainlesssteel panels appropriately welded together such as to form an enclosurehaving a pair of parallel sidewalls 18, a rear end wall 20, a removableor hinged front wall in the form of a cover 22 provided with a gasket 23and a top wall 24. A corrugated bottom wall or floor 26 is disposedabove the conveyor belt 14 at a distance permitting the eggs 16 to passtherebelow.

A spray nozzle 28 is mounted below the housing top wall 24 and isconnected through a conduit 30 to an injection pump 32 driven by anelectric motor 34. The pump 32 draws mineral oil from a tank or drum 36,FIG. 1, through a suction line 38. The pump outlet line 30 is alsoconnected to components disposed in a control box 40 via a line orconduit 42. The face of the control box 40 supports appropriate controlssuch as an on-off switch 44, indicator lights, not shown, and a pressuregauge if so desired, although it will be appreciated that the pressuregauge, connected to the pump outlet conduit 30, may be disposed at anyother convenient location on the housing 12.

As best shown at FIGS. 2 and 3, the corrugated floor 26 forms arelatively deep trough 46 extending longitudinally in the housing 12above the conveyor belt 14, transversely to the direction ofdisplacement of the eggs 16 transported by the conveyor belt 14. Thetrough 46 is disposed substantially directly below the oil spray nozzle28 and the nozzle 28, when in operation, provides a thin fan-shapedspray 48 directed towards the bottom of the trough 46. The bottom wallor floor 26, as best shown at FIG. 2, is substantially shaped intransverse section as two adjoining inverted V such as to form tworectilinear ridges or peaks 50, substantially equidistant from thebottom of the trough 46, each provided with a row of elongate slots 52.

An electrically driven air blower 54 is mounted on the top of thehousing top wall 24. The outlet of the blower 54 is connected through anopening 56 to the chamber 57 defined within the housing 12. A pair ofdeflector vanes 58 is disposed within the housing 12 below the opening56 such as to deflect the flow of air throughout the chamber 57 withinthe housing 12 and cause the air flowing throughout the chamber to behighly turbulent. The fine spray 48 of oil is further finely atomizedand transformed into a mist, cloud or fog permeating the whole chamber57. In addition, the atmosphere within the chamber 57 is slightlypressurized by the blower 54, which causes the mist or fog of oil toescape from the chamber 57 through the slots 52. The mist or fog flowingthrough the slots 52 deposits a coating of oil on the shells of the eggs16 traveling below the bottom wall or floor 26 of the housing 12. Anadjustable gate or throttling means 60 partially obturates the inlet ofthe blower 54 for providing an adjustment of the air flow rate throughthe opening 56 into the chamber 57 within the housing 12. The amount ofoil deposited on the eggshells by the fine mist or fog passing throughthe slots 52 is proportional to the air flow rate into the chamber 57and, by appropriate adjustment of the blower inlet gate or throttlingmeans 60, the amount of oil coating the eggshells may be adjusted to anoptimum value as a function of the speed of travel of the eggs 16 on theconveyor belt 14.

The trough 46 of the housing bottom wall or floor 26 has a drain 62 atone end thereof for returning to the tank 36 the excess liquid oil via aline or conduit 64, simply by gravity or by way of an auxiliary pump,not shown. The proportion of oil returned to the tank 36 by the conduit64 amounts to the majority of the oil sprayed through the nozzle 28, asonly a very small proportion of the sprayed oil becomes sufficientlyfinely atomized from the spray itself, aided by the circulation ofturbulent air being introduced into the chamber of the housing 12 by theblower 54 and by impingement of the small droplets of oil from the sprayupon the surface of the bottom of the trough 46. While traveling on theconveyor belt 14, the eggs 16 are caused to rotate, with the result thata coating of oil is deposited over the whole surface of the shells.

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of the electrical and pressurerelay arrangement of the egg oiler of the invention. Upon closing of theswitch 44, the motor of the blower 54 and the motor 34 driving the pump32 are activated. The pump 32 draws oil through the suction line 38 andprovides oil to the nozzle 28 at a pre-set pressure, for example, 60psi, via the conduit 30. As previously mentioned, the conduit 30 isconnected through a conduit 42 to components installed in the controlbox 40 of FIG. 1 that comprise a pressure switch relay 66 which isactivated if there is no oil pressure in the conduit 42 connected to theoutlet of the pump 32. The pressure switch relay 66, through a delay 68,activates the relay 70 of a normally closed switch 72. Opening of theswitch 72 shuts off the pump motor 34. In this manner, in the event thatthe pump 32 is not supplying any oil pressure at its outlet, which maydamage the pump through the lack of oil circulating through the pump,the apparatus is automatically shut off after a predetermined timedelay.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the presentinvention has applications other than in in-line egg treatmentapparatus. For example, oilers according to the invention may be usedfor depositing on the surface of mechanical parts a fine coating of oil.

Having thus described the present invention by way of an example ofstructure thereof, modifications whereof will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art, what is claimed as new is as follows:
 1. An in-linepart oiler mounted over a conveyor transporting articles to be oiled,said oiler comprising a closed enclosure having a bottom, a spray nozzlemounted in said enclosure, means for supplying oil under pressure tosaid spray nozzle, an air inlet into said enclosure, means for supplyingair under pressure to the interior of said enclosure through said airinlet, a surface in said enclosure upon which a spray of oil from saidnozzle impinges, whereby said spray of oil is finely atomized in saidenclosure and dispersed in the air in said enclosure as a fine mist, andapertures through the bottom of said enclosure for passing said mistfrom said enclosure upon the articles traveling on said conveyor,wherein said spray of oil is fan-shaped, said surface is the bottom ofsaid enclosure forming a trough extending substantially in the samedirection as said fan-shaped spray for causing said spray to impinge atthe bottom of said trough, and said apertures passing said oil mist tosaid articles traveling on said conveyor are formed at the top of saidtrough.
 2. The oiler of claim 1 further comprising deflector means atsaid air inlet for creating a turbulent air flow into said enclosure. 3.The oiler of claim 2 wherein said apertures are slots formed at the topof said trough substantially parallel to the bottom of said trough. 4.The oiler of claim 3 wherein said articles are eggs.
 5. The oiler ofclaim 2 wherein said articles are eggs.
 6. The oiler of claim 1 whereinsaid articles are eggs.
 7. The oiler of claim 1 wherein said aperturesare slots formed at the top of said trough substantially parallel to thebottom of said trough.
 8. The oiler of claim 7 wherein said articles areeggs.